NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was indicted Friday in what prosecutors called a yearslong scheme to hide a romantic relationship with her bodyguard, who is accused of being paid as if he was working even when they met alone in apartments and traveled to vineyards for wine tasting.<\/p>\n
Cantrell faces charges of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction, less than five months before she leaves office due to term limits. The first female mayor<\/a> in New Orleans’ 300-year history was elected twice but now becomes the city’s first mayor to be charged while in office.<\/p>\n \u201cPublic corruption has crippled us for years and years,\u201d Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Simpson said, referring to Louisiana’s notorious history. \u201cAnd this is extremely significant.\u201d<\/p>\n Cantrell’s bodyguard, Jeffrey Vappie, was already facing charges<\/a> of wire fraud and making false statements. He has pleaded not guilty. A grand jury returned an 18-count indictment Friday that added Cantrell to the case.<\/p>\n They\u2019re accused of exchanging encrypted messages through WhatsApp to avoid detection and then deleting the conversations. The mayor and Vappie have said their relationship was strictly professional, but the indictment portrayed it as \u201cpersonal and intimate.\u201d<\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s office didn\u2019t immediately respond to a phone message or email from The Associated Press seeking comment on the charges Cantrell hasn\u2019t sent out a message on her official social media feed on X since July 15, when she said the city was experiencing historic declines in crime.<\/p>\n In a WhatsApp exchange, the indictment says, Vappie reminisced about accompanying Cantrell to Scotland in October 2021, saying that was \u201cwhere it all started.\u201d<\/p>\n Cantrell and Vappie used WhatsApp for more than 15,000 messages, including efforts to harass a citizen, delete evidence, make false statements to FBI agents, \u201cand ultimately to commit perjury before a federal grand jury,\u201d Simpson said.<\/p>\n They met in an apartment while Vappie claimed to be on duty, and she arranged for him to attend 14 trips, Simpson said. The trips, he added, were described by her as times \u201cwhen they were truly alone.”<\/p>\n New Orleans taxpayers paid more than $70,000 for Vappie\u2019s travel, the prosecutor said. <\/p>\n Authorities cited a September 2022 rendezvous on Martha\u2019s Vineyard, a trip Cantrell took instead of attending a conference in Miami. Vappie\u2019s travel to the island was covered by the city to attend a separate conference. \u201cThe times when we are truly (traveling) is what spoils me the most,\u201d the mayor wrote to him that month.<\/p>\n Simpson said Cantrell lied in an affidavit that she activated a function on her phone that automatically deleted messages in 2021 when she really didn\u2019t active that feature until December 2022, a month after the media began speculating on the pair\u2019s conduct.<\/p>\n When a private citizen took photos of them dining together and drinking wine, Cantrell filed a police report and sought a restraining order, Simpson said.<\/p>\n Vappie retired from the police department in 2024.<\/p>\n Cantrell and her remaining allies have said that she\u2019s been unfairly targeted as a Black woman and held to a different standard than male officials, her executive powers at City Hall sabotaged. Simpson, however, shook off claims that any of it played a role in the investigation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s irrelevant that it\u2019s romance or that it\u2019s female,\u201d he told reporters, adding that the allegations were \u201can incredible betrayal of people\u2019s confidence in their own government.\u201d<\/p>\n Cantrell, a Democrat, has clashed with City Council members during a turbulent second term and survived a recall effort in 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a sad day for the people of New Orleans,\u201d Monet Brignac, a spokesperson for City Council President JP Morrell, said as news of the indictment spread.<\/p>\n In 2014, former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was sentenced to 10 years in prison for bribery, money laundering, fraud and tax crimes. The charges stemmed from his two terms as mayor from 2002 to 2010. He was granted supervised release from prison<\/a> in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n As she heads into her final months in office, Cantrell has alienated former confidants and supporters, and her civic profile has receded. Her early achievements were eclipsed by self-inflicted wounds and bitter feuds with a hostile city council, political observers say. The mayor\u2019s role has weakened following voter-approved changes to the city\u2019s charter meant to curb her authority.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Cantrell said<\/a> she\u2019s faced \u201cvery disrespectful, insulting, in some cases kind of unimaginable\u201d treatment. Her husband, attorney Jason Cantrell, died in 2023.<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014-<\/p>\n Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Ed White in Detroit contributed to this story.<\/p>\n